Network Vision/LTE - Chicago Market

[digiblur]

Just began seeing LTE on my EVO 4g LTE in Schaumburg IL near Schaumburg Rd and Summit. It has been spotty and the speeds aren't all that hot yet.

 

Put you an airplane toggle widget on the home screen and cycle it in different areas. Its one of the work arounds for the LTE connection issue on the EVO.

[S4GRU]

Just began seeing LTE on my EVO 4g LTE in Schaumburg IL near Schaumburg Rd and Summit. It has been spotty and the speeds aren't all that hot yet.

 

LTE performance is very signal strength dependent. Although there can be a problem with a new site coming online, most of the time slower speeds indicate a weak signal. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2040-bars-lie-for-lte-signal-strength-how-to-determine-your-actual-lte-signal-strength/

 

Also, welcome. Thanks for your first post and becoming a S4GRU Sponsor.

 

Robert

[aerxx]

I was at my local Sprint store today upgrading a family members phone, the rep and I got to jawing about LTE in Chicago. He proceeded to tell me that just this week they installed what he called an LTE box in the back office of their store. He didnt know what it was for, does anyone have any ideas?

 

This was on the roof.

Are the stores getting an LTE microcell to help them sell phones and show off their new network?

[S4GRU]

I was at my local Sprint store today upgrading a family members phone, the rep and I got to jawing about LTE in Chicago. He proceeded to tell me that just this week they installed what he called an LTE box in the back office of their store. He didnt know what it was for, does anyone have any ideas?

 

This was on the roof.

Are the stores getting an LTE microcell to help them sell phones and show off their new network?

 

About 20-25% of Sprint stores are slated to get LTE repeaters.

 

Robert

[EndlessDissent]

Just began seeing LTE on my EVO 4g LTE in Schaumburg IL near Schaumburg Rd and Summit. It has been spotty and the speeds aren't all that hot yet.

 

That's good to hear. My friend lives over there, and it's always been a pain to try to use 3G by his house. Another tower in the area should be coming online soon to help with it; its upgrades have been interfering with my usage for almost two weeks now.

[smac7]

Put you an airplane toggle widget on the home screen and cycle it in different areas. Its one of the work arounds for the LTE connection issue on the EVO.

 

I have an SIII. Is it strange for me to be having this issue on my phone? or is it just how it is right now since they are rolling it out. It Seemed like the only way i connected to 4g at all today was by cycling. 290 was lit up with lte but the only way i got it was toggling.

[monchi]

Saw this today while driving inbound on the Kennedy expressway near Division. Please tell me those are Sprints NV panels =)

 

[Ecfbsig32]

That looks like the NV panels I've seen.

[ks-man]

Not that couldn't have been safe

 

Although with the traffic on the Kennedy you were probably stopped.

[tommym65]

LTE at home, south end of Crystal Lake, this morning. Slow and unpredictable (1.0-1.7 Mbps down, 0.3-2.2 Mbps up), but actually here for the first time that I have seen. The connection stayed up for about half an hour, then reverted to eHRPD, then went back to LTE. I seem to be in a fringe area at the moment. Trying to map on Sensorly.

 

Later: Yaay! Sensorly mapped it, along with an area I just drove through on Miller and Swanson Roads. Signal strength is indicated as fairly weak, which seems right. This LTE seems to be coming from a tower about 5 miles away (I won't say exactly where, because I can't remember if this is a Sponsor forum: It is the closest "4G" tower on last week's map, and tracks nicely with Sensorly's signal strength colors). When Sprint lights up my nearest tower (about 1.5 miles), I would hope the signal would be huge!

 

[Echoing someone's earlier post: I can't believe how obsessed I'm getting with this LTE thing !]

[_OMEGA_]

Put you an airplane toggle widget on the home screen and cycle it in different areas. Its one of the work arounds for the LTE connection issue on the EVO.

 

Makes me feel even better on holding out and not buying the EVO. My S3 automatically connects to LTE without messing with any stupid airplane setting.

[Joeynach]

Makes me feel even better on holding out and not buying the EVO. My S3 automatically connects to LTE without messing with any stupid airplane setting.

 

My experience with HTC has been awful and it seems to be replicated here. I had an HTC Evo Shift. After a few months of usage I noticed very many bugs, I notified both HTC and Sprint of numerous times, they both went back and forth and nothing ever happened. I would get the HTC loading screen all the freaking time when I would exit out or go back through Apps or to the Sense UI. I also discovered that FriendStreamer stop functioning (it wont update) when the phone's storage goes below 45MB. Go back above 45MB and it went right back to working.

 

So I am not shocked to hear the new HTC EVO has a systematic problem (unfortunately LTE connectivity) that is not being addressed by the manufacturer or carrier. IMO, it never will, ditch the Evo now while it has value, and get something doesnt come out of the box with an Achilles heel.

[StephanStengel]

Just began seeing LTE on my EVO 4g LTE in Schaumburg IL near Schaumburg Rd and Summit. It has been spotty and the speeds aren't all that hot yet.

 

Yah...comparing the NV map vs. the COMPLETED NV map, there's still a bunch of towers that have yet to be touched.

 

I eyeballed 40-50 NV towers centered around the Schaumburg/EGV/Rolling Meadows area. There's only around half that amount of towers in the COMPLETED map of the same area.

[mc_gusto]

 

About 20-25% of Sprint stores are slated to get LTE repeaters.

 

Robert

 

That's it? Why not all of them?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[wtsguy]

So I am not shocked to hear the new HTC EVO has a systematic problem (unfortunately LTE connectivity) that is not being addressed by the manufacturer or carrier. IMO, it never will, ditch the Evo now while it has value, and get something doesnt come out of the box with an Achilles heel.

 

I'm really considering doing this. Grab an S3 and sell the EVO. What a pain in the ass... It was spectacularly awful today when I was near an NV tower all morning but was on 3G until some hours later when the phone decided "hey, guess I'll grab that LTE signal" and then it was on 4G. There is seemingly no rhyme or reason for why, how, or when it decides to connect to LTE.

[digiblur]

That's it? Why not all of them?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

No need to repeat something when the signal is strong. I'm actually surprised it is that high.

[Joeynach]

I'm really considering doing this. Grab an S3 and sell the EVO. What a pain in the ass... It was spectacularly awful today when I was near an NV tower all morning but was on 3G until some hours later when the phone decided "hey, guess I'll grab that LTE signal" and then it was on 4G. There is seemingly no rhyme or reason for why, how, or when it decides to connect to LTE.

 

Right so dump it, I'm telling you its not going to get better and you will be waiting around forever for Sprint or HTC to announce a "fix" cuz it aint gonna happen. One in the hand is worth two in the bush, go get a phone that works now!

[hayzooos]

I've heard Best Buy will be having SIII's on Black Friday for $49. Again, just heard this, so I cannot say it with 100% certainty.

 

Obviously still 5 weeks away, but if you want to save some coin, you can go about it that way. With all the press the EVO LTE has gotten about their bad LTE connections, you might be hard pressed to find someone to trade you an SIII for an EVO LTE.

 

I'd have someone give me their EVO and about $450 for my SIII.........so I could turn around and get another SIII right after.

[Vince]

I've heard Best Buy will be having SIII's on Black Friday for $49. Again, just heard this, so I cannot say it with 100% certainty.

 

Obviously still 5 weeks away, but if you want to save some coin, you can go about it that way. With all the press the EVO LTE has gotten about their bad LTE connections, you might be hard pressed to find someone to trade you an SIII for an EVO LTE.

 

I'd have someone give me their EVO and about $450 for my SIII.........so I could turn around and get another SIII right after.

 

You're correct. It's for new customers/line upgrades. Wish they'd make the iPhone 5 $50 :/

[wtsguy]

S3's going for high 300's and low 400's on ebay, just be sure to avoid the "bad ESN" listings of which there are quite a bit of. You're absolutely crazy if you think you can get an EVO AND $450 to trade for an S3, haha.

 

I'm going to hold out hope for awhile longer that they'll get to the bottom of this issue. As more LTE lights up, more and more people will pressure Sprint and HTC to fix this.

[hayzooos]

S3's going for high 300's and low 400's on ebay, just be sure to avoid the "bad ESN" listings of which there are quite a bit of. You're absolutely crazy if you think you can get an EVO AND $450 to trade for an S3, haha.

 

I'm going to hold out hope for awhile longer that they'll get to the bottom of this issue. As more LTE lights up, more and more people will pressure Sprint and HTC to fix this.

 

Oh I know it. There's no real way it would happen, just making a point. If it's a software thing, it shouldn't be that big of a deal and hopefully a fix isn't too far off. If the problem lies in the physical radio they used...well...there's virtually zero chance it'll get fixed.

[jmafisher]

I got 4G at home today in ,Mount Prospect, for the first time (between Golf and NW Highway just west of Rt 83). Had 5MB upload and 4MB download. Then it all stopped, so hopefully they are testing things out and it will be permanent.

So, when Sprint announces 4G in the Chicaog market, will they turn on all the towers at that point? It's a bit frustrating having 4G come and go.

[Dkoellerwx]

I got 4G at home today in ,Mount Prospect, for the first time (between Golf and NW Highway just west of Rt 83). Had 5MB upload and 4MB download. Then it all stopped, so hopefully they are testing things out and it will be permanent.

So, when Sprint announces 4G in the Chicaog market, will they turn on all the towers at that point? It's a bit frustrating having 4G come and go.

 

When Sprint announces Chicago, most likely only about 60% of the towers will be completed. It will take until December or early January for the market to be completed. Any tower that is completed is being released into the public so far as we can tell, so announcing the market won't change anything if you still aren't getting a signal. Only when the towers nearest you are completed will the signal finally settle down.

[biker1284]

Well 4g still working well in Winfield but terrible call quality along multiple phones.

 

May try an older radio to see if that helps, but its hard to understand/ be understood and I doubt this will make any difference.

[Dkoellerwx]

Well 4g still working well in Winfield but terrible call quality along multiple phones.

 

May try an older radio to see if that helps, but its hard to understand/ be understood and I doubt this will make any difference.

 

Still a lot of work going on in the area, so the dropped call issue that developed as NV worked started will probably continue a few more weeks. I imagine that as 800 voice is activated in your area, that call quality and dropped call issues will disappear.